I bought the Xyron Personal Cutting System- my thoughts

Ok, I caved and bought the Xyron PCS when it was on HSN last week. It was my birthday and I just happened to have $150 extra b-day money left and it was such a good deal I couldn't resist. I got the machine, the basic font, and the HSN exclusive font with some shapes. Well I got it this week and had time to play with it and I am not happy.

The machine is cute, little, and not very noisy. Much quiter than the Wishblade, but it does not work how I expected as far as size of the items. The design books are made so they hang over the plate at the bottom of the machine on the left hand page there is a size reference chart. This is pretty much the only reason I can find for the pages to hang over. There are 3 sizes. The PCS cuts on a 4 in square plate, the largest letter is about 3.75 inches tall and wide. Perfect for what I wanted, except it doesn't cut that big. The large letter actually fits the medium size pictured. The med is pretty close to the same size and the small is quite noticably bigger than the small pictures. The shapes Med and Large size line up exactly with the pictures, but again the small is considerable larger than the reference pictures. When it was just the font I though I might have had a defective book, but since the small on the shapes doesn't line up I think the machine is defective or both books, or the reference pictures are useless.

I was so disappointed, although I want the Wishblade, the PCS would be perfect for me b/c no computer needed, but it looks like I'm going to have to send it back. I'm going to try to call xyron on monday and see if I can get a little more info and see if my machine is working properly and that is just how the sizes are. Does anyone else have the PCS and do you have the same problems? Any advice?

I would be interested in hearing more about this. I was thinking of getting one. My lss has them and the owner demo'd it for me. There are several threads about it on 2peas. Seems like there biggest complaint is the sticky pad not sticking. No one said anything like you did. YOu make check there. Supposedly they made reference to a yahoo group also. Good luck!

I finally got in last night and headed straight for the hsn box ( the last few days were killing me knowing the box was at home and I couldn't play with it ), and I love it. I just plugged it in and started adding to my scrap pages within minutes ( I had lots of pages waiting for titles ). I love that you can press a button and put in a word and then leave to work on your layout and come back to get cut letters ( of course the first few letters I just sat at the table and watched the machine -lol ). I love the fonts and the shapes and can't wait to get more books. Plus I love the idea of getting a complete letter set for less then 40.00. I look at it as an asset to my library of fonts ( yes, I have the quickutz and sizzix and probably will hold on to them). I know a lot of people may prefer the wishblade, but the cost in comparison to wishblade was a big factor for me. For the short term mostly , I just don't have the money to fork out for the wishblade and the hsn flex pay was a major plus. Also even though the wishblade will cut any font, some of the fonts and shapes I have seen don't have the look I am looking for ( I guess I like the desighner's eye ). As far as the cricut, the few things available for it didn't appeal to me either, plus the cost of the additional fonts and shapes don't hold a candle to the xyron price. I'm looking forward to seeing what if any upgrades will be added to this machine. One of the other things I love about the xyron is the fact that the cuts are already seperate so you to don't have to cut out the same shape in different colors and then cut again to achieve a layered look. I realize I am a tool junkie and even though this will probably not be my last cutting system ( I'm thinking about getting the bigshot in the future, mostly because the girls scrap with me, so a few machines to choose from is a plus in my house ) I do think its been one of my best scrapbook investments in a long time. And being able to take it anywhere ads to the appeal also. Yes, I will pay more in the end then I would have for a wishblade, I think I will have more fun with the xyron.

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okay...i got mine last night and played and played with it. i love it. i can't believe how easy and fast it is to make titles. i love the three different sizes. love both of the fonts that came with it. the only thing that i would change if i were to change anything is that i wish it help an 8x10 piece of paper. i say this only because i want to keep cutting and cutting and cutting. i ordered the embellishment book and that should be here today. i have read reviews about the books being too thin. i didn't really have a problem wtih that. now, i'm not going to take them and flip through the pages roughly or anything but why would you do that with any type of machine that you use? so for my review i give it a big thumbs up. love it love it love it.

I have a laptop so portability is not much of a factor for me with the WB. I was able to cart it to my mom's house last weekend to work on my swap items -- fit my laptop, the WB, and all the cables, plus my cardstock, and some other tools, all in a NaNavigator tote.

Cost is definitely a factor but I love that I'll never have to buy a font set. There are so many fonts out there -- including tons of Dingbat fonts that cut perfect shapes and silhouettes... There is also free software to download if you want to get more advanced and do shadow mats or connected script -- it doesn't take long to figure out at all. I *heart* my WB!

I joined the Yahoo group and got tons of useful information. Thanks for the link.

If anyone needs to contact xyron regarding the XPCS thier number is 1-877-394-9474 and be prepared to WAIT. Long hold times and then the service rep will take your info and forward it to xyron corporate and they will call you back, I am expecting thier call tommarrow. So if you call you are better off leaving a message when it offers the option, just don't realistically expect the callback within 30 minutes.